The CDMA iPhone for Apple is just a rumor that will never die, and it’s also one we’ll keep hearing regularly until it happens – or if we’re left to find that it doesn’t. This time Analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro with Susquehanna Financial Group says that suppliers are pointing to December of this year for the start of production for the CDMA, or Verizon iPhone.
This info does jive with all the rumors we’ve been hearing about a January release for the Apple smartphone. There have even been rumors that Apple has already been working with Qualcomm to get dual LTE/CDMA chipsets for a Verizon-compatible iPhone.
Just how many CDMA versions of the iPhone will Apple build? According to the rumors, over 3 million — that’s a lot of iPhones!
Additionally, as reported by AppleInsider:
For the current quarter, suppliers reportedly said that Apple is set to build between 18.2 million and 18.4 million GSM-only iPhones. Fidacaro noted those numbers are “well above investor expectations,” because display panel constraints with LG Display have been resolved.
Fidacaro expects Apple to sell a record 11.6 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of the company’s fiscal 2010. That would be a 39 percent increase from the 8.4 million handsets the company sold in the third quarter of fiscal 2010.
Although many are skeptical about a Verizon iPhone ever coming into existence, it would certainly behoove Apple to snap up that huge chunk of the American market if it intends to keep Android at bay. Numbers show that Apple has been having some trouble with keeping its market share, and the iPhone 4 that launched in June didn’t do much help.
The huge increase that Fidacaro expects in sales for the fourth quarter could be attributed to the normal spike in sales during the holiday season, but a 39 percent increase is substantial. If suppliers are correct in the number of smartphones Apple intends to build this quarter, the fourth quarter predictions may seem even more plausible.
Personally, I can’t wait until January comes around so we can finally put an end to this three-year-long rumor. Of course, if it does come to pass and AT&T loses exclusivity of the iPhone, it doesn’t seem like the carrier will be sweatin’ much since it has a good number of customers on lock.
[Via: AppleInsider]
